Addiction
by LightInsideDarkness
Summary: A story about a beaver and her army of video game inspired robots of death as she desperately wishes the government would just leave her alone already. A cute little idea inspired by some characters I created years ago. Also, Mini-Zaku's.
1. Chapter 1

Addiction

Chapter 1: The beginnings, AKA: Bounty Hunters need to get a REAL job.

Danelle slowly dragged herself out of bed. Her room was the same as usual, a scattered mess with it being mixed up between her games and tools. She went over to her bathroom, and looked at herself in the body mirror. She hadn't bothered to change out of her outfit, as she rarely did. She wore a plain long white lab coat open, revealing a plain blue shirt and some regular blue jeans.

She then paused, looking at her face. She was a beaver, seemingly a rarity when she took into account how many of her kind she ran into. She had bright purple eyes, and her natural fur color was brown but she had dyed it bright yellow, although it looked like it was fading. Later on she would have to fix that.

Danelle sighed and shook her head. Dying her fur always took longer than she liked, but she greatly disliked her regular fur color. She decided it could wait though since she had no plans on going out that day anyways. As she left her restroom, she saw a small yellow robot, almost legolike in some ways, standing there with a stupid grin on it's face, holding up a plate of warm food.

Danelle grinned as she leaned over to pick get her food, and patted the robot on the head. "Thanks Servie." Servie was the pet nickname she gave her replica Servbot she made, the first project she ever undertook.

The replica Servbot saluted her, and responded with a high pitched "Thank you Miss Tron!" before wandering off to take care of it's other duties. At the time she wasn't sure how to program it's language banks properly to say her name, and Tron was easier for it to handle. She could fix it now, but she found it to be cute.

Danelle pulled some of the buttered toast off the plate she was handed and munched on it as she headed towards her living room. She ran into none of her other robots, which was unsurprising considering that they should be busy with either maintenance or patrols. She plopped down on the sofa in front of her television, and turned it on before turning on her 360.

oOoOoOoOo

"Sir, we are ready to proceed!" A black haired soldier, saluted the larger and much more imposing figure in front of him.

The figure nodded towards the soldier, acknowledging him, but saying nothing otherwise. He wore a blue GUN uniform, decorated in dozens of medals. He had brown hair that seemed to point forward near the front of his head, and blue eyes that seemed to bore into whatever it was that was unfortunate enough to be in front of him at the time.

The figure took one look at the large base that stood in front of them. A criminal resided there, although her crimes weren't violent in nature, just rebellious. Unfortunately for her, they were rebellious against the government so they had been sent to deal with it. They were often considered to be one of the best units in GUN, a group considered to be the elite in most circles being made up of veteran soldiers who were scouted out for special operations.

The figure grinned. His group would do something many considered impossible and capture the known criminal Danelle. It would be a massive boost for his already famous unit. He drew the decorative blade that all GUN Squad Leaders were given, and pointed towards the base.

"Charge!" He shouted, his grin widening.

The soldiers rushed the base, all of them cheering for victory.

OooOoOoOo

The lights inside the base turned off, instead being replaced by red lights, and a blaring siren. Servie rushed into the room, a horrified look on his face as he tugged at Danelle's coat.

"Miss Tron! It's awful! We're being raided!" Servie tugged at her coat some more, his high pitched whine continuously trying to bring the raid to her attention.

"Yes, I'm aware of the raid Servie. It's not like it's not a monthly issue." Danelle treated the raid with little interest. The raids started almost two years ago now, her robots were brought to the attention of the government, many of them considered dangerous and she was ordered to dismantle them immediately.

At the time she responded by pulling a DS out and turning her attention to Mario.

Whenever they decided to arrest her on the spot, she walked out of the room after the place was bombarded by a mixture of several dozen robots she made. It was a shame that she lost her Angelus robot though, the large dragon had taken the better part of a year to make. She made the mistake of programming it with it's personality from Drakengard though, it was used as an example of how dangerous her robots were, and it kept commenting on it's disdain for humans. It was an obvious target once the bombardment started.

The alarm went on for almost an hour, with Servie constantly tugging at her lab coat and wailing at her about the raid. She then heard a gasp from the small Servbot as the door behind her opened. She saw a battered human in her door, wearing a torn GUN uniform that clung to the few medals it had left on the ruined outfit.

"D-Danelle..I'm placing you under a-arrest.." Breathing, seemed to be a tough task for him at the moment, let alone talking. The red light was replaced by the bases normal lighting as the raid was declared over.

Danelle gave the man a glance, and she smiled some as she recognized him. "They're sending GUN after me, and this is the best they can do? How disappointing. Especially when it's the legendary Skull Unit led by Spike Kanaki."

Spike straightened himself up with some noticeable effort, then grabbed the hilt of his decorative sword, having been long since disarmed of his firearm. "You're coming with me or you'll die here."

"Oooh, how scary," Danelle taunted as she smirked, standing up from her sofa now, facing her attacker. "You get past a few robots, and you think that's all it takes to capture me?"

Spike suddenly charged her without warning, his sword already moving out to cut Danelle. Before it even got near her though, a figure dropped from the ceiling, a flash of metal lashing out. Spike screamed out in pain as he right eye was cut and he stumbled, grasping at his bleeding eye.

A ninja-like robot faced him, it's entire body covered in a blue outfit. It said nothing as it flicked the blood from the blade off, and it then readied it again, preparing for the next strike.

Spike tried to stand up but the effort from it, as well as the rest of the raid finally took it's toll on him as he fell over and fainted.

Danelle watched the man faint and she sighed with relief. If he fought much longer, he probably would have forced her robot to kill him. That's the problem with trying to simply restrain the more persistent types. She patted her ninja robot on the head. He was one of the few not based on any character she particularly liked, she just wanted a stealth robot without a personality.

"That will do." She said, checking the now unconscious Spike as she made sure she removed his blade from him. "Get him to the medical room before you send him back to his squad, his eye probably can't be saved, but there's no point in letting that wound get infected."

The ninja robot nodded and slung Spike over his shoulder, before taking off faster than her eye could follow. Danelle sighed again before turning back towards her game. She continued playing it for a few more minutes before a huge grin came over her face.

"..Hehe. That would be perfect for a bodyguard." Danelle pulled out some paper as she started to take notes on a new robot, but she frowned a few seconds later. "...But how can I make a drill that big?"

oOoOoOoOo

A cloaked figure stayed hidden as he watched robots toss the wounded Skull Unit soldiers out of the base. It looked like their raid was about as successful as the ones before it. That would probably be a major blow against the pride Spike was known to have for his team.

But however unsuccessful the raid was, It did weaken Danelle's base, giving him a chance to sneak in. He didn't care much for bringing her to justice, the reasons for it seemed to be frivolous to him. Maybe she attacked a Government Installation, but only after they told her to dismantle her robots for reasons he felt amounted to jealousy.

But trying to make a living as a bounty hunter wasn't easy, especially when you're not a well known one. Danelle was quite probably the most famous target of the decade, being the target of an untold amount of hunters, army, and GUN units. None of them ever succeeded, but a few of them came close to doing so.

The cloaked figure removed his hood, revealing his face covered in black fur, with the excess amount of fur on his head treated as hair and spiked back and dyed orange with black tips. He had also dyed his ears white.

He looked kind of stupid, but he caught attention in a crowd, which was also important for an relatively unknown bounty hunter. His mind was on none of that though. He was instead focusing on how to sneak into the base. He already had the basics of it worked out, he just needed to work out the rough parts of it.

"Eh, I'll wing it." He muttered to himself after a few minutes of brainstorming. Unsurprisingly, "Winging it" was his usual plan, he relied on his unnatural amount of luck to get through a lot of hunts.

He focused to bring about an amount of Chaos Energy around him, creating a small electromagnetic field around him that normally disrupted visual sensors on mechanical machines. He walked out into the opening, and the robots working in front of the base seemed to not notice him.

He grinned and walked for the opening, as soon as he reached it though, a bullet went flying by his head and he froze, slowly raising his hands into the air, letting the electromagnetic field around him die away.

A green robot floated towards him lazily and smirked as he motioned for the mini-Zaku worker robots to continue their work. "Do you seriously think that we wouldn't notice the chaos energy? We're not that old you know."

The cat laughed nervously turned to face his new captor. "Would you believe me if I'm here to sale bibles?"

"By sneaking in?" The green robot raised an eyebrow.

"Uh..yeah. I'm a Ninja Salesman." He laughed again, a little less nervously this time.

"Oh, sorry to take up your time then. You're free to go." The green robot turned away and started to float off as the cat grinned and started to open up the door.

Several more shots rang out, and hit the door, barely missing the cat as the green robot floated back over towards the cat. "How stupid do you think I was programmed to be?"

The cat sighed and raised his hands above his head again, turning to face the green robot with a hopeful smile. "Really stupid?"

oOoOoOoOo

Harupia muttered something underneath his breath, visibly annoyed at the current situation. He had to take time off his current work schedule to escort a new intruder to Danelle. To top it off, the prisoner was quite annoying.

Harupia turned to watch and make sure the Mini-Zaku's were keeping the cat in place. He noted with some pleasure that the cat was rubbing his eye, something to do with that Harupia punched him in the face once after his sarcastic comment.

They reached the entrance to Danelle's room and opened the door, and Harupia landed, bowing down as she turned to face them.

"Mistress, we have detained an intruder trying to sneak into your base." Harupia grabbed the cat and dragged him out in front of him, but still holding onto him. "He used the chaos energy to try and disrupt out sensors, so we waited for him to reach the entrance so we could corner him."

Danelle nodded to Harupia, a satisfied smile on her face. "Very good Harupia. I shall wish to speak with him."

Harupia hesitated for a moment, then nodded as he released the cats arm. He floated back towards the Mini-Zaku's, and motioned for them to surrond him on either side and be ready for the command to fire.

Danelle got off the couch and stepped towards the cat, walking around him as she examined him. "Open your cloak." She ordered.

"My my, feeling frisky tod-" Before he could finish, Danelle made a hand motion towards Harupia, who quickly floated over towards the cat, and punched him in the back of the head, causing him to stumble forward a little, and rub the back of his head.

"I care not for your humor. Open the cloak." Danelle ordered again, anger in her voice that wasn't there earlier.

The cat sighed and opened up his cloak, revealing an empty sheath, at his waist, kept in place by blue jeans, with orange mesh pockets, and a red strap around the sheath keeping it there.

"Your weapon?" Danelle asked, looking at him suspiciously.

"Your robots confiscated it from me when I got caught obviously." The cat sighed as he went back to rubbing the back of his head. "You know, you should tell the green one to work on his temper. I tried to joke with him and h-"

"Good god, you don't know when to shut up, do you?" Danelle asked, glaring at him again, and then looked over at Harupia. "Did he carry any identification on him?"

Harupia landed again as he knelt down. "Mistress, I am sorry to say he didn't. He did however have a Bounty Hunters card on him. It would appear you have a price on your head now."

Danelle didn't really care about that, it was unsurprising that she did now. "Whats your name?" She turned to face the cat again.

"Dark. It comes with a number if your intere-" Dark was cut off from his sentence as Harupia punched him in the back of the head again, letting out a yelp of pain. "Seriously! Stop with the punching!"

"Stop with the jokes and he'll stop punching you." Danelle said, a hint of a smile on her face. "Oh and Harupia? One more time for good measure."

"My pleasure." Harupia grinned as he pulled his metallic fist back, readying it to hit Dark again. A small whimper was heard clearly by everyone in the room before it hit.

* * *

Hiya . I'm Light Inside Darkness also more commonly known as Dark, but the name was already taken. Well this wouldn't be the first story I've ever wrote, but it's the first one I've felt sufficiently pleased with enough to upload.

I know there are probably some questions, so I'll go ahead and answer them. Yes, this is in the Sonicverse, but none of the characters, except for maybe Eggman MUCH later will be appearing. I like (most) of them, but as it is, I'd rather like to keep this to be a unique affair. I don't want this to turn into a ''My characters interact with the Sonic characters" thing when I could instead focus on trying to do something new.

And I'm always open for constructive criticism. Writing is an art that is hard to perfect, and I would much appreciate helpful advice on how to make myself better. Also, if you have an idea for any other robots, let me know, but don't be dissapointed if yours doesn't get tossed in there. I don't want to give Danelle any robot thats too close to being human.

But thank you for reading my story, and I hope to keep you all enjoy it, and choose to come back to read it as I continue to update it.

Danelle: .com/albums/f189/Dark_Energy_


	2. Chapter 2

Addiction

Chapter 2: In which I can't think up of a chapter name.

Danelle appreciated Harupia's...enthusiasm in beating the new hostage. She really did. But she wished that the robot would leave him conscious long enough for a serious interrogation.

Danelle sighed. "Harupia, I know I told you to hit him each time he cracked a joke, but did you have to beat him unconscious? It's hard to get information from someone who isn't awake to give it."

Harupia bowed down low, his voice apologetic. "I offer my apologies mistress. It's just that...well...this prisoner...he is rather annoying would you not agree? Each time he opens his mouth I have the strongest urge to close it with my fist."

Danelle couldn't help but chuckle. "I think we both have that urge. But it could have waited until he told us who is placing a bounty on me. It doesn't worry me too much, but it will pay to know who my enemies are."

Harupia bowed down again, muttering an agreement, but Danelle waved him off, telling him to throw Dark into a makeshift cell. With the way things were going, she was going to need a lot of extra defenses, and fast. If the Skull Unit invaded again with some backup, it would be trouble.

"Harupia." Danelle called out for him, causing him to turn around to face her. "Do we have any...drills?"

Harupia frowned at her question. "Of course Mistress. Why do you ask?"

"I'll be needing them. The biggest ones available." Danelle turned towards her television, staring at the image on it, making Harupia curious. He looked around her at the screen also, and chuckled.

"Really, Mistress? Don't you think that's overkill? Such a beast would be unable to restrain an attacker, only slay it." Harupia seemed amused with her idea.

"I'm aware." Danelle muttered. "But today the Skull Unit leader got close enough to possibly kill me. It would appear that special measures are beginning to be necessary."

Harupia bowed in the air, a feat that looked slightly uncomfortable to Danelle. "Of course Mistress. I shall let the Mini-Zaku's know to gather them for you."

- - - - - - - - - -

Dark awoke in a locked room, too dark to see anything, and heard the cluttering of metallic feet outside of it. He felt for his cloak and was disappointed to find it missing. It appeared she wasn't going to take any chances of him hiding anything.

Dark formed a small bit of chaos energy in his hands, using it to light up the area he was in, and sighed as he realized where he was.

"The laundry room?" Dark was amazed. "She can build an army of robots, give them abilities that even the most advanced military scientists can't even hope to do in this decade...and the best jailing she has available is a laundry room?"

Dark suddenly grabbed the back of his head and fell to one knee, rubbing it. "Yeesh..either the stupidity of this is getting to me, or Harupia hit me a few more times after I fell unconscious.."

The door then opened up, Harupia standing there looking slightly amused as he watched the injured cat stand up again. "Eh..a little from Column A, a little from Column B. Figured that if you were already unconscious, a few more blows to the head couldn't be that bad for you."

"Oh? What about Asimovs Three Laws?" Dark asked as he finally managed to drag himself back to his feet. "Aren't you supposed to be following those?"

Harupia chuckled as he motioned for Dark to step out and follow him. "Danelle decided not to program us with some asinine laws created by a dead author." Harupia then slowly started to rise, two energy blades extending out over his hands from his arms as he struck a dramatic pose in the air. "Now look at us! Living unbound by the rest of society, WE are the true rulers of this planet! We shall fight to rule this planet a-"

"Ahem." A voice rang out from behind Dark, causing him to turn to look, and Danelle was behind him, her arms folded. "Harupia, sometimes I regret programming you with your full personality."

Harupia bowed down in the air with a slight chuckle again. "I apologize Mistress. I shall do my best not to do my evil monologues around you."

Dark stared openly at both now, before he shook his head and glanced at Danelle. "What the hell do you place your robots personalities on?"

Danelle shrugged. "Most of the robots themselves, and their personalities are based on their video game counterparts."

"....Video games?" Dark twitched. "You...you build your advanced weaponry based on video game characters?"

"Sometimes anime characters also. I like to try to stay diverse." Danelle smiled.

"So..you're just a giant nerd?" Dark felt something rising up in his stomach. "I came here to try to capture someone wanted by the government for being a NERD?!"

"Geek." Danelle corrected.

"..Wha?" Dark was staring at her again.

"Nerds do nothing and sit around really. Geeks are sometimes antisocial and actually know how things work and get things done." Danelle smiled again. "Only a geek could get this robotic family done, not just some nerd."

Dark sighed as he shoved his face into his hands. "Oi...this is not a good day. I got captured by a nerd.."

"Geek." Danelle corrected again, her smile slipping.

"Whatever." Dark was beyond the mood for banter by now. "I wake up in a laundry room, and have to listen to your gigantic green birdman give his evil monologue.."

Harupia punched Dark in the back of the head.

"GAH! Stop fucking doing that!" Dark snapped.

Harupia shrugged.

Dark glared at him, and kept his eyes on the robot before continuing. "Then I learn that the threat I came to detain is actually a woman who plays too much video games! You know what? I'm done. Fuck this bounty, fuck this base, fuck geeks or nerds, whatever the hell you are, and fuck you Harupia. I'm leaving."

Harupia grabbed Dark by the arm, lifting him up into the air. "Like hell you are. You're coming with m-"

"Chaos.." Dark started, his eyes acquiring a faint glow to them as light began to gather in his hands.

- - - - - - - - - -

The Mini-Zaku's just finished clearing out the remaining Skull Unit squad members, finishing it off with Spike.

"Well, that takes care of that." Zaku-1 said. "Lets go report to Harupia for our next mission."

"Roger that. Lets ret-" Zaku-2 was cut of by Harupia shooting through the wall, followed immediately by a rather large blast.

"Harupia!" Zaku-1 saluted him. "We have finished our assignment! We are ready for new o-"

Harupia ignored the two Mini-Zaku's as he blasted back through the wall, cussing rather vehemently as he did so.

"...So, take the rest of the day off?" Zaku-2 suggested.

- - - - - - - - - -

Dark hit the ground with a rather audible thud, and laid there silent for a few seconds. When he finally broke the silence, he groaned and rolled over, looking at Danelle who seemed speechless.

"You know.." Dark started. "That idiotic bird robot of yours really needs to know when to give it up. It was impressive that he threw that barrier up right before I finished, but it didn't do much to help."

Danelle blinked as she tore her eyes away from her bases new series of holes. "How...how much energy did you use?!" She was impressed. Not many living creatures could generate that much chaos energy and live.

"More than I should have.." Dark groaned again as he tried to stand up. "I'm pretty drained, but I still have more than enough to get out of this place you know."

Danelle smiled and rose her hand, making a simple waving motion. Almost instantly, the room was filled with a mixture of several dozen Mini-Zaku squadrons, her personal ninja robot, and a very angry Harupia who just flew back in through the walls he was blasted through.

"...Huh." Dark eyed the new robots that just flooded the room, and smirked a little as he saw Harupia's face distorted in rage. "Well, I always enjoyed a challenge."

He then dragged himself to his feet, using the remaining chaos energy he had to reinforce his muscles, and he ran towards the crowd of robots inbetween him and his escape.

- - - - - - - - - -

"Well you have to give him some credit," Danelle said to a still very angry Harupia. "I've never seen someone stupid enough to take on an army by themselves."

"I'm sorry Mistress, but he just blasted me through the damn base. I want him _dead_." Harupia was in the process of being restrained by fifteen Mini-Zaku's pinning him to the ground.

"And I want him alive." Danelle motioned towards the again unconscious cat on the floor, riddled with tranquilizer darts and bruises. "I still don't know who placed a bounty on me, and I would like to run a few tests on him. He can produce an amazing amount of chaos energy and survive it, it could prove to be helpful if I knew how he does it."

Harupia opened his mouth to speak. "..." Harupia closed his mouth.

Danelle motioned for the Mini-Zaku's to let Harupia up. "Now then, are we finished with our argument? Or can I trust you to take Dark to his cell?"

"..You mean the laundry room?" Harupia asked, his face showing heavy restraint.

"Yeah.." Danelle looked away. "We should probably do something about that."

"I'll look into it." Harupia bowed down low and turned away to walk off.

"By the way...Harupia?"

"Yes Mistress?" Harupia turned again to face her.

"If you really wanted to get the Zaku's off of you..why didn't you use your thrusters?" Danelle was now wearing an amused smile as she pointed out the obvious solution that had flown over Harupia's head.

Harupia opened his mouth to speak, but then closed his mouth instantly, as he thought on it. Slowly the unbridled rage he was wearing but a minute ago was returning to his face.

"SON OF A..." Harupia started.

- - - - - - - - - -

Zaku-1 and Zaku-2 were busy laying around doing much of nothing other than talking with eachother.

"....Well, we had no standing orders to help Lord Harupia, and as such we could have done something against his and Mistress Danelle's wishes." Zaku-2 finished explaining.

"..And?" Zaku-1 asked.

"And we're lazier than hell." Zaku-2 admitted. "But my point still stands. Unless we're told to check something out, it might be best for Lord Harupia, and the Mistress if we don't interfere."

"...BITCH!" Harupia's voice rang down the hall into the Mini-Zaku's room.

"...Like that?" Zaku-1 asked.

"_Especially _that." Zaku-2 replied.

"I'm fine with that." Zaku-1 said

Neither of them moved from their spot.

- - - - - - - - - -

Dark woke up in an unlit room. He sighed as he felt around and realized he was in the laundry room again.

"Mlaaaaaugh." Dark said. He stopped as he thought about what just came out of his mouth.

_Funny... _Dark made a face. _"Mlaaaaaaugh" is not "Why am I back here"._

"You know.." A voice behind Dark spoke. "It can be hard to speak after being injected with enough tranquilizer to down an elephant."

"Graalsssh?" Dark said.

The voice sighed. "Okay, seriously. I don't even have a brain and you're making it hurt. Stop talking."

Dark tried to stand up, and discovered that he couldn't. He decided to try to roll over. That wasn't doable either. As a matter of fact it seemed like all he could do was twitch, drool, and speak incoherently.

_Alright. I thought I might earlier, but now it's official. I hate this place. _Dark's sigh came out as a mass of kept up spittle spilling out of his mouth. _I need to get out of here._

As if to answer the voice in his head, the door opened and Dark found the barrel of a rifle straight in his face.

"Lord Harupia!" A rather uninteresting voice sounded out. "Mistress Danelle has sent me to get you. She believes you have had a long enough time out in the cell!"

The voice behind Dark sighed. "Well then, that's good and all, but I can't MOVE you idiot. Power my limbs back on."

"Ceeeeearmsash?" Dark asked.

"...Er..." The new voice seemed to have no words.

"Oh don't mind him." Harupia seemed to be enjoying himself some. "The other Mini-Zaku's filled him with tranquilizer darts. He probably won't be coherent for a few hours."

"I...see." The new voice seemed to be unconvinced. He walked over to Harupia and Dark heard a few clicks.

"Thank you Zaku...?"

"Zaku-27 sir!"

"I see." Harupia walked past him and Dark. "And where is the Mistress?"

"Her workshop Lord Harupia. She called for you to help her with a new robot she's working on." Zaku-27, whether it was deliberately or not was now standing on Dark's back.

"ARRRGHBLEASH!" Dark shouted, throwing his spittle everywhere.

"I shall report over there immediately then." Harupia bowed down, and as he did Dark saw his face, grinning. "Say, 27, do you have any standing orders now?"

"No sir!" Zaku-27 seemed to jump a little on Dark's back as he did what Dark could only imagine was a salute.

"Good." Harupia chuckled a little. "Then I order you to power down right there for the next two hours and then report back to me for new orders."

"WHALISUSGH?!" Dark shouted again, tearing up a little from the pain of the Mini-Zaku standing on his back.

"Will do!" Zaku-27 jumped a little as he saluted Harupia again, then powered down.

"Heh...enjoy your stay Dark." Harupia chuckled again as he turned away to walk off. "It'll be a long one."

Dark whimpered as the door closed, knowing that the next two hours were going to be the longest he ever had in his life.

- - - - - - - - - -

Danelle was sitting over a barely started project. It seemed to be a massive old scuba outfit, with a gigantic makeshift drill.

"..Well, if I run the wiring to meet in the head...no too obvious." Danelle sighed. The original design left much to be desired in terms of making a robot.

Harupia entered the room and bowed. "I have arrived Mist-"

"Yeah yeah, that's great Harupia. Get over here." Danelle motioned for him, still focusing

on her new robot. "I'm trying to work out where to place the power core on this big guy. Any ideas?"

Harupia walked over to the new robot and grinned almost instantly. "Well...his butt might be a good spot to put it."

Danelle turned towards him and blinked.

"W-what I mean is..." Harupia bowed down to her again, lower than usual this time. "You're asking me which means you want a place that isn't obvious..I don't think anyone would check his...rear. Don't you agree Mistress?"

"...Harupia." Danelle turned away from him. "As disturbing as some of your ideas are...they are effective. But I never imagined there would be the day where I imagined powering a robot through it's ass."

Harupia chuckled some as he straightened himself up. "I didn't think I'd see the day where you had me tossed in the laundry room for a time out."

"So we're even?"

"Indeed Mistress."

Danelle laughed a little and turned around to face Harupia, a huge smile on her face. "I should have programmed you with less intelligence. It gets annoying to have a robot that gets the better of me in some conversations." She patted him on the shoulder playfully.

Harupia smiled back at her, and bowed down again, not as low as usual this time. "I'll keep that in mind Mistress. Do you require me for anything else?"

"Yes. I would like to see Dark in about twenty minutes.." Danelle turned back towards her new project, starting to work on the placement of the power core. "Please bring him here by then."

Harupia frowned. "Can it wait for...about...an hour and a half Mistress?"

"I would prefer for it to be around my time fr-Harupia what did you do?" Danelle looked over her shoulder, shooting a suspicious glare towards him.

- - - - - - - - - -

"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, HELP ME!" Dark had discovered he could talk five minutes ago, and spent the entire time screaming, for help.

Unfortunately, the only source of possible help nearby was the Mini-Zaku's. And they had no orders to help him.

Dark struggled as he tried to get Zaku-27 off his back. "WHY DOES NO ONE ANSWER ME IN MY TIME OF NEED?!"

- - - - - - - - - -

"Would you believe me if I said..nothing?" Harupia gave a hopeful smile.

"No, not really." Danelle shrugged. "But as long as he's alive, I suppose it's fine."

Harupia bowed down low again as he lifted up off the ground. "I shall keep that in mind Mistress. Very close in mind."


	3. Chapter 3

Addiction

Chapter 3: I can't believe it took me four days to write this.

Dark was feeling kind of cranky. Not too much of a suprise considering his summons to see Danelle again involved several kicks to the head and dropping a sleeping Mini-Zaku on his back. Not to mention he had to go see Danelle again. That self-absorbed beaver was starting to get on his nerves, just as much as her robots were.

_You know what? Fuck it. _Dark thought angrily. _I don't care if she's wanted for just being a nerd. I'm going to collect that bounty on her out of spite. _That brought a smile to his face.

And a jab from Harupia's elbow, into the back of his head. "Prisoners don't smile. Stop it." Harupia seemed to be hitting him every chance he got. Something that Dark had discovered against his will.

But he grinned maliciously at the green robot behind him. "You seem to be rather agitated with me Harvey."

"Harupia." The green robot scowled at the obvious attempt to annoy him.

"Yeah, whatever birdman." Dark grinned even wider.

"..." Harupia elbowed Dark in the back of the head again, making sure he could defend himself in case of another attack from the cat. "Prisoners don't make bad puns either. They shut up and do as they're told."

Dark rubbed the back of his head, and looked forward grinning still. "I wonder. Does it have anything to do with me blasting you through several walls?" Dark made sure to place a large emphasis on the last few words. "You can't be upset over that can you?"

He didn't have to look behind him to know Harupia was angry now. It didn't seem to take much to do so anyways. _Hehe...if I keep this up then he'll slip up eventually. _Dark placed both of his hands on the back of his head as he walked now, doing a mocking relaxed pose as he walked now. _When he does, I'll take my chance to escape. He shouldn't be too hard to get away f-_

"Kneecap him." Harupia said through gritted teeth.

"What?" Dark looked down, his smile dissapearing.

He saw one of the Mini-Zaku's run in front of him, and it then rammed the butt of it's customized rifle into his kneecap. Dark howled with pain suddenly as he dropped down on that knee, and started to rub it, and Harupia floated in front of him, smiling grimly.

"Get used to that position cat." Harupia landed, and he ran a hand under Dark's chin, forcing him to look up at him. "Before you leave, you'll be kneeling before me every time I'm forced to have you in my presence."

Dark tried to swat Harupia's hand away, and regretted it instantly as his hand met cold steel, and he glared at the green robot, smirking a little. "When I build my reserves up again, you should know that I'm coming straight for you and Danelle."

"I suppose you want me to be honored." Harupia smirked back at the cat, removing his hand from the chin it held up. "But vermin like you are mean to be exterminated. You live only on the Mistress's orders. After you test your luck, she will be happy to name me as your executioner."

That earned a chuckle from Dark as he stood up again, a little wobbly on his injured leg. "Keep talking you egotistical tin can. It'll make your destruction all the more satisfying." Dark smiled as he suddenly drew his hand back, and it started to glow blue. He took a step forward with his good leg and swung with all his might straight into Harupia's chest.

Right before it reached though, Harupia returned the smile as a, orange tint washed over the front of him. As Dark's hand smashed into his chest, the blue energy on the cat's fist dissipated, leaving only the clashing of flesh and bone against metal.

Dark stumbled backwards, crying out in pain as he drew his hand back, now a bloody mess and most likely broken. Seeing this Harupia's smile grew even more wicked as he stepped forward towards the cat.

"So you still managed to have a little bit of energy saved up? I'll admit, that's impressive considering how much you used earlier..but it was foolish to attack me. I was built to be able to absorb chaos energy and re-route it into my power supply." Harupia suddenly drew his knee back, and then threw it forward, slamming it into Dark's stomach, his smile growing as his wounded prey stumbled backwards, trying desperately not to vomit. "It is unfortunate that I cannot kill you now, but I can torture you into cooperation."

Dark looked back up, his eyes showing nothing of fear, but instead anger and determination as his gaze met Harupia's. "I'm...not going to go down that easy!" Dark rushed back towards Harupia, when suddenly he fell to the ground as one of the Mini-Zaku's leapt on top of him from behind. He cried out in pain from the familiar pressure on his spine.

Harupia stepped forward, and place his foot on the cats head, and lifted off the ground some by means of his thrusters. "I don't know whether I should commend you for your bravery, or chide you for your foolishness. But either way, I would still punish you for your resilience. So lets get to the part that makes my day."

Harupia then motioned for the Mini-Zaku to move off of Dark's back, and moved his foot off of the cats head. He kicked him hard in the stomach from the air, sending Dark flying into the wall, and the force of the kick, as well as the previous knee from the stomach forced him to vomit up blood and bile as he hit the wall.

Harupia's grin grew slightly feral as he floated over towards Dark, who now had no energy to defend himself, and he landed right in front of him, placing his left foot on the wounded cat's ribcage. "Do you know what I like the most about my build? My feet thrusters, while not as powerful on the ones on my back, help in stabilizing my flight. And they make for an effective way of safer torture." With that said, Harupia activated his left foot's thruster, and Dark screamed out in pain as he felt the intense pressure from the thruster destroy the left half of his ribcage completly, before he passed out from the pain.

Harupia moved back and smiled as his work. "Drag him." He ordered to the Zaku's. "As we are now, we'll miss the Mistress's time to get to her. We cannot waste time issuing treatment."

The Zaku's both voiced their acceptance on the order, and then grabbed Dark by the legs, and dragged him behind Harupia. _My, what a delightful day this is turning out to be. _Harupia mused to himself.

- - - - - - - - - -

Danelle frowned as Harupia entered the workshop, followed by the Mini-Zaku's dragging in an unconscious and obviously injured Dark behind them. She figured that Harupia might take a few...creative liberties in retrieving him, but she never imagined this.

"Harupia...is there any reason why my prisoner is...injured to this degree?" Danelle shot him an angry glare after she finished the question.

"He was...uncooperative." Harupia replied. He didn't like not telling Danelle the whole truth, but he wasn't lieing either. Dark was being uncooperative. After the kneecapping.

Danelle scowled openly at Harupia. "I said I needed to _talk_ to him. I can't speak to an unconscious body." She nudged Dark with her foot. "Zaku's take him to the medical ward. Give him immediate treatment. Harupia...I need to speak with you. _Now._"

Harupia frowned as the Mini-Zaku's wordlessly dragged the cat off to recieve treatment, but said nothing as Danelle approached him. She was quiet as she walked around him, examining him, and when she finished, she just stood in front of him, staring at his face.

"...What the _hell _is wrong with you?!" Danelle snapped when she finally spoke up. "You're readings are normal, so you're working at optimum effeciency, theres no malicious coding in you, I would have been informed if there was, and you were on standing orders to bring him to me _conscious _so I could interrogate him!"

"Mistress, if I may s-" Harupia started as he bowed to her.

"_NO._"

Harupia sighed as he straightened himself back up.

"I know I said that as long as he was fine, it didn't matter but this..." Danelle nearly motioned towards where Dark was previously until she remembered he was dragged off. "This is _insane_. I gave you no orders to practically _torture _him into an inch of his life!"

"He did try to attack me Mistress." Harupia cut in suddenly, struggling to keep his face an emotionless mask. "I restrained him to a point where he couldn't pose a threat to any of us, yet within your set parameters. I fail to see the issue."

Danelle glared at him angrily, sensing she was not receiving the whole truth. She turned away, hiding her face now as it twisted itself into a barely contained rage. "Harupia. Tell me the whole story. _Truthfully_."

Harupia flinched, and sighed. He knew this was coming, but he still tried to avoid it. "...Very well Mistress. That cat...he kept antagonizing me for his own amusement. After he made a few comments...I ordered one of the Zaku's to hit him in the kneecaps." Harupia saw Danelle twitch with that, and her hand were balling up into fists. He wished he could stop, but until he was ordered to, he couldn't. "And..I moved down to antagonize him back, and he attempted to destroy me with a small bit of chaos energy he had saved up. After he broke his hand on my barrier..I proceeded to beat him into unconsciousness. He likely suffers from a shattered ribcage due to my efforts."

Danelle turned towards him, tears welling up in her purple eyes, and her face showing nothing but anger and disappointment. "Leave. And until I order you to do otherwise, power down in your quarters. _Immediately._"

Harupia bowed down for a second, and considered saying something, but decided against it. He slowly floated out of the door, and after it closed Danelle finally broke out crying in anger.

_Idiot!_ Danelle shouted in her mind. _I tell him time and time again not to take any rash actions, and to always think things through to the fullest, yet he nearly kills someone for his own amusement! How am I supposed to deal with that fool..?!_

Danelle grabbed the nearest rag she had and started to wipe her face off in it, and slid down to the floor against the table her project was on. "Idiot.."

- - - - - - - - - -

Dark woke up in a bed. The first thing he noticed was that for a change, he wasn't waking up in the laundry room. _Well that's a start._ Dark thought, and tried to chuckle. That was the second thing he noticed. Any action from him seemed to result in immense pain.

Thinking back on it now, it wasn't that much of a surprise. He was beaten pretty hard. He sighed, and immediately regretted it as the small motion seemed to make the entire left side of his body explode into pain.

"...Dark?" A voice came from his left also and he slowly turned his head to see who it came from. When he finally turned his head fully he saw Danelle, looking at him. For some reason it looked like genuine worry was in her face.

"..Yeah? What is it that you want?" Dark asked, letting some anger enter his voice. As he spoke he tried to avoid letting the pain of the small effort show up on his face and in his voice.

"I...I wanted to apologize for Harupia's...actions. I'm partially responsible for them." Danelle looked away. "I...didn't want you to become injured this badly."

Dark blinked at her, speechless. Since he's seen her, all he's seen of her personality is an uncaring and sarcastic side. He didn't suspect that she actually cared for anyone other than her robots, and especially not a bounty hunter that jumped in to collect the bounty on her.

Danelle looked at him, noting his silence. "...Heh. You probably don't care do you?" She turned away and started to walk off. "I don't blame you. It was my robots that did this, and I haven't exactly been a good host. But once you're healed up, you can leave. My robots are ordered to let you leave at that time."

"GUN." Dark suddenly blurted out.

Danelle turned towards him, en eyebrow raised. "...What about them?"

"GUN...they placed the bounty on your head." Dark choked out, closing his eyes, unwilling to look at her now. "It was an unusual bounty to see, you never see one from the government. If able to cash in on such a bounty, the one who got it would be famous."

It was Danelle's turn to stare at the cat. She never got the chance to ask him, and she didn't intend to after what Harupia did to him. "Why...why are you telling me this?"

Dark rolled over with some considerable effort, to hide his face from her. "...You apologized to someone who came to capture you, because one of your robots beat the shit out of me. Why did you apologize to me?"

Danelle turned back towards the door and opened it. "...I don't want my robots to be killers. Not on my behalf or theirs alone. I suppose I'm too kind for that. I'm apologizing more for them than for myself."

The door closed and Dark sighed, wincing some with pain as he did so. _Great..now what do I do?_

_- - - - - - - - - -_

Danelle exited the room and sighed. _How am I supposed to keep control of all these robots..? _She leaned against the door and closed her eyes. _I know that their supposed to listen to me..but they find so many damn loopholes in my orders. ..Hah, look at me. I'm an inventor who can't control her inventions.._

She chuckled sadly, and wiped the tears forming in her eyes away. _Especially Harupia. I love him like he's family...but he has to fight everything I tell him to do while obeying them at the same time.._

Danelle's thoughts were interrupted as Servie suddenly came bustling down the hall, in a frenzied panic. "Miss Tron, Miss Tron! Someone broke into the base! He's already destroyed six of the Mini-Zaku's!" He started to tug at her lab coat.

"...Joy." Danelle muttered. "Another Bounty Hunter? What's with them today?"

"Bounty Hunter? You wound me. I'm not as low as one of those fools." A figure in a long black trench coat stepped forward slowly, dragging the remains of a destroyed Mini-Zaku with his left hand, his right carrying a hand gun with a longer barrel than usual. "I have morals. They have to be bought, but they're there."

Danelle looked at the new figure, and looked down over at the destroyed Mini-Zaku it was dragging with it. She glared at him angrily, and turned away quickly. "So then, if you're not a Bounty Hunter, and obviously not military, who are you?"

The figure removed the hood of it's trench coat and grinned. It was a hedgehog with black fur and red quills. "My clients call me Shadow. I'm the best protection you can buy around here." Shadow tossed the destroyed Mini-Zaku in front of him. "Here's your proof."

Danelle turned around, and looked at him with disgust. "I assume this is your idea of an _advertisement_? To break into my house and kill my family?"

Shadow merely chuckled. "Family? Girl, these are toys. If these guys can't stop one lone intruder with some power, how are they going to handle an army of hunters?" Shadow aimed at the Servbot and chuckled as Danelle stepped in between the servbot and his gun. "If you want _real_ protection, I would suggest hiring me."

Danelle smiled suddenly as she waved the Servbot off. "You know what? You're right Shadow. Whats your price?"

Shadow smiled cockily as he opened up his trench coat, and put his gun up in a holster inside of it. "Five thousand a month usually. When the raids kick in, I want an extra five hundred for every kill I make."

"Done." Danelle smiled. "I already have an assignment for you."

"Really?" Shadow's eyes widened. "You'll be a good employer then. Whats the assignment?"

"Clean my base." Danelle turned away. "After that, you'll get your pay for your first month."

"...I'm not cleaning your goddamn base." Shadow growled. "I'm your body guard, not a house maid."

"Well then, we might have a problem. You appear to want to be hired, but you don't want to listen to your employers orders." Danelle smiled to herself as she walked off. "I suspect that if you want my money, you'll do as I say."

Shadow watched her walk off. He then looked behind him at the mess the oil from the destroyed Zaku he dragged along with him made. "...Shit."

A/N

Hi there, yep it's me again. Three chapters in and I already broke my "No Sonic Characters" rule. But this is likely the only time. I just had a small idea for Shadow that cracked me up so I figured what the hell.

But for those of you wondering, (AKA: None of you.) I honestly have no real plan for this story, except for near the end. As it is now, I'm just winging it. So as it is now, I'm being flexible with what I figure I can and can't do, and improvising my story on the fly, until I feel that I've come up with something that I think the readers can enjoy.

On that note, I'm dissapointed in my second chapter. It wasn't very well written, and I feel like it was a poor attempt at random humor. The only real thing I'll likely be acknowledging from it is the start of Harupia's rivalry with Dark and the Mini-Zaku's main personality.

And now as you may have noticed, the story is starting to actually kick in. I feel I may have tried to lay in a sudden burst of seriousness out of nowhere, but on that note, I also feel like I was trying to make up for Chapter 2.

Well then, with that said, I'm finished for now. As always, I'll appreciate some constructive criticism, it would help to learn how I can better my writing. And please enjoy my works.


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